South Africa’s history of Apartheid has resulted in its youth inheriting the task of innovatively transforming exclusionary systems and dismantling generational cycles of struggle to move all South African’s towards a better future.

This presentation will explore how supporting the adoption of technology, entrepreneurship, and using venture capital can accelerate equality, thus, increasing financial capital while fostering a business ecosystem that includes informal entrepreneurs, scales local businesses, and develops much needed technical skills.

Gigi Ngcobo is a South African senior studying Finance and UX Design at MSU. She is enthralled by emerging technology and growing African businesses. As such she is the Marketing Director of Spartan Blockchain, spent her summer as an Analyst at Invest Detroit Ventures and planned the MSU’s inaugural African Business Lecture.

Nomzamo Ntombela is a South African Ph.D. student, also at MSU. She completed her undergraduate studies and BA (Hons) at the University of Stellenbosch in Cultural Anthropology where she served in various leadership positions, historically becoming the first black woman to occupy the Stellenbosch Student Council Chairperson position in the 100-year tenure of Stellenbosch.

This is the last in a six-lecture series. The subject is South Africa: Past, Present, and a Look Forward. The next lecture series will start October 31, 2019. The subject is: Voting in America: Perineal Issues, Future Developments.